How to End Your Consultant Interview Answers with Confidence

A big mistake interview candidates make is not having a clear ending to each of their interview answers. Hi, I'm Tessa.

And I'm Becky. And this is the Ace Your Consultant Interview podcast, where we help you stand out and succeed in your consultant interview.

Before we get into today's episode, if you're prepping for your interview, make sure you're signed up to our free 5-day email crash course. It breaks down exactly what you need to do to stand out, And you can sign up via the link in the description.

In this episode, we're going to discuss whether it's okay to mention something that you forgot in the interview at the end, what's a good mistake example, and how you manage flow.

Okay, so we're going to talk about our question of the week. This is a question that one of our Academy students have given to us. This week's question is, If I get to the end of the interview and I remember something that I wish I'd have said, can I mention it?

Oh, okay. I mean, I want to say no because you should have, you know, just given yourself that space and time to plan your answers before you said it. Um, but let's assume that you didn't, that's not what happened, and now you're thinking, oh, I just really wish I'd said that.

Do you think— I suppose the question is, do we think they would then add it to that answer? Like, go back to scoring that answer and be like, oh yeah, and they also said this. Because that's the thing. Do you think it's going to improve your score for that question?

It's only valuable if they're going to do that. So I suppose the first thing to say is, look, I appreciate this is a bit awkward at this point, but in the question about clinical governance, there's something that I really should have said. Is it okay if I just tell you that now? And then I think the panel can say either yes, in which case I think the assumption is they are going to add it to the score, or—

No.

No, you had your chance and you didn't say it.

Yeah.

And I suppose, oh, just if I was a panellist, I think I would have to say, look, I'm really sorry, but no, because where's it going to end?

Yeah.

And then what? Then, then you're going to say, also, I had something about the flow question. Um, and also I just thought about something I would also do with a struggling trainee. Yeah. Um, and it could be a never-ending story. I, I would probably say no if I was on the panel because I would think that I was trying to level the playing field and keep it fair for everyone.

Yeah, this would be a good— actually, you know how we've got, uh, one of our colleagues coming to speak who's on— I've been on like 50 panels. coming to speak in the Academy, we could actually ask this question.

Right.

Because, yeah, I mean, in some ways you could say, well, there's nothing to lose by adding it in, but on the other hand, maybe it'll just annoy people and you've had your go. So, I suppose if it's something that you— something significant that you will be really kicking yourself about, you could approach it in the way you said. But you're always going to have things that you wish you'd have said. That's the nature of performing in a stressful situation. So, Yeah, I don't think you can sort of micro-adjust your answers.

I think it comes down to what we always say, because this is one of our bugbears, right, about the, you know, have you got any questions for us? And we always say, under no circumstances should you ask a question. Please see previous podcast episodes. Kind of the same as that, isn't it? That there's a potential for really irritating the panel at this point. Because they are just trying to get on to the next person.

I would— yeah, I was just thinking, yeah, because it's not very respectful of everyone's time, is it? But I was thinking if there was a case where you had a question that you just did not answer, so you were like mind blank, panic, couldn't answer, said nothing, moved on to the next question, essentially that you were scoring zero for that question, and then you kind of get yourself together and you think of something, then maybe in that situation you could say, look, I know I passed on the question about whatever, but actually I do know how to answer it. Would it be possible to answer it now? In that case, they might do. That's a bit different from just adding on a little afterthought.

Yeah, I think that's probably the only circumstance in which it would be okay. But I think if it's just a general little additional— and I also just wanted to say I was really sorry about that happening. If it's just a little addition, I think just move on.

Yeah, you've had your goal, it's done. Just leave with grace.

Yeah.

Let's go on to look at our example of the week. This is a golden example that our students given us to suggest they use, and we've got an example here of a time you made a mistake.

Yeah, this is quite a story. I was the EPIC, so I was the emergency physician in charge on a Monday evening, and it was super busy. During handover, we had a discussion about this particular patient being treated for acute angle-closure glaucoma on the emergency treatment list, and they were pending discussion with ophthalmology. And ophthalmology cover is always an issue for us. So in the morning, the junior handed over to the late junior with the plan that was discussed in handover. The junior took over. left it until the time that the ophthalmology on call finished and they'd gone home. And so the patient never got discussed. How do we feel about this as a mistake?

Well, it's definitely very long and it has a lot of detail that makes it more confusing, including the fact it was a Monday evening, which is a— which is, I think, a classic, like adding extra details. It was a Monday evening, I was standing here, we'd had a cup of tea. And like, you don't— I would cut out all of these details, and we encourage people cut out all the details that you don't need. And also, I'm not sure, like, is it relevant that it was acute angle-closure glaucoma? Like, it's a patient that needs ophthalmology referral from the emergency department, and it was lost in handover. So, the patient did not get an ophthalmology review, I think is what happened. And actually, you can explain that much more concisely in a sentence or two, and you get the idea. And that's what you want. You don't want people thinking, oh, acute angle-closure glaucoma, does that need an urgent? You know, because that's irrelevant. It's— the point was that the plan was to get an ophthalmology review and there was a delay. And so I think just cut out all the bits that are not necessary. So that's one thing. And then what do you reckon about the mistake itself?

Well, it's not your mistake, is it? No, that's the first thing to say. No. Um, so some— you, you were the consultant in charge, but one junior handed this to another junior, and then they forgot about it, and then that, you know, it all went wrong.

Yeah.

So, I think in the mistake answer, what we're looking for is you to have made a mistake. We've all made them. And then to just take some ownership for that mistake, and for putting it right. And I think, I generally don't like this whole kind of, but it was my mistake really because I was the person in charge and therefore the buck stops with me. I think you can come up with something a bit stronger than that.

Yeah.

Um, I think there's one other thing that I don't like about this.

Okay.

Um, and it's the whole kind of, and look, our ophthalmology cover's always a bit of an issue.

Yeah.

Because now we're having a little bit of a go at another specialty, and I think that's not a good look in an interview.

Yeah.

So I think this could be done as succinctly— if, say, it was your mistake, it could be, I was handed over a patient that needed a referral and discussion with another specialty. I completely forgot about it, and by the time it got to 5 PM, I realised the right person had gone home, so this patient didn't get what they needed.

Yeah, that's a good one. And then you just say you feel terrible, you felt really bad.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and that, you know, if that was your mistake, that's an honest human mistake. We've probably all done that. How did you put it right? What did you do to apologise to the patient? And what have you learned as a result? But I think saying, taking ownership of somebody else's mistake is not what we're looking for in this answer.

Yeah.

Agree.

So there's definitely scope for this to be better if you really think it was your fault, because I think that's the thing is like you, you can say the buck stops with me, but you don't really feel that bad about it because you should— you're juniors, like this is not like a thing beyond people's realm. They should be able to refer when they're supposed to refer. So, um, you don't really feel that bad about it. And so you, yeah, you're missing a chance to connect with the panel by Owning up to something. Um, so I think, yeah, if you could phrase it like the way you said it, it would be much stronger. You can see easily it's relatable, it's easy to follow. We know you made a mistake, you're being honest, and then it gives you the rest of the answer to then explain what you did, how you handled it, all of that stuff. But hopefully that's like— that's a good example of a contrast between how the same example can sound very differently depending on how you, how you phrase it.

I think with all of these things Say it out loud. Maybe you've recorded yourself doing it, or say it to somebody else, and just check that it lands the way you think it's going to land. Yeah, just make sure that you sound like you're taking ownership, that you sound like the kind of professional that you want to be.

Yeah, yeah, it's a good way of thinking. Like, if you were listening to this example, what would you think about the person delivering it? Because that's what it is, is they're, they're thinking about the type of example you chose how you owned it, how you reflected on it. Um, okay, so there's potential there but needs a bit of refining. Okay, so next up we're going to look at an actual interview question that gets asked. Um, so what interview question are we going to look at today?

Okay, so we've got, how would you improve our outpatient or waiting list backlog?

I think this is a good question. Because it's asking about, do you think about service delivery and also how to ensure quality care? Because it's going to be all tied into delivering quality care, which is if you're in a specialty with a big waitlist time for clinic, for theatre, for whatever it is, then this is a problem for the quality of care your patients are getting. And you're going to be able to tie it in with thinking about flow, Thinking about metrics and measurable things, thinking about what makes quality care, and showcase your understanding of that particular service. Because if you don't know anything about the service, that's going to come across in this answer, because you'd have to answer it generally for your specialty, which you still might have some good ideas about. But if you can tailor this to them, that's gold. That's gold. Because, and this is where your advantage comes in being the internal candidate. It's not the fact that you're the internal candidate, you can use it in questions like this because you will be able to tailor your answer to them. Because you can say, I know what you've tried. I know you've tried this. I know you've been trying that. I know this is the wait time. And all of that stuff that you would find much harder to bring in when you haven't worked there. And so, this is how you can use it to your advantage. But if you're the external candidate, this is why the pre-interview visits are so important. Because actually, if you listened carefully in the pre-interview visits, you probably would know that their waitlist backlog is an issue. And therefore, you can anticipate that this kind of question is coming up. And if you've followed through in your pre-interview visit conversations, you will have asked them, oh, okay, so what sort of things have you done to address it? And you'll get a feel for it. So, I think this is why it's such a good question, because it helps ask you to show senior-level thinking. And helps to pull out from you how much you care about the team that you're applying to.

I think it's an opportunity, as all of these questions really are, to show them not only what can be done about their waiting list issues, but what you personally can do about their waiting list issues. So, tie in, you know, your unique selling points, your projects that you've done, around what they need as well. So, you know, for example, I looked at our outpatient clinics and I recognised that, you know, 50% of people who came to follow-up appointments didn't really need them, didn't have any change in their treatment as a result. And so I instigated a patient-initiated follow-up programme, and that's streamlined our appointments by 50%, or, you know, however many. And I've saved the trust £8,000 a year as a result. Now you're the person to deliver their outpatient clinic backlog issues, not just some kind of hypothetical thing. Well, we could have a look at this and that. Tell them what you've done and how it relates to their service.

Yeah, it's a good opportunity. And this question you should be prepared for, because it's thinking about flow, thinking about efficiency. This is a standard— it's not the exact wording, standard, but a question around flow, improving the service, delivering better care, these are all standard questions. So, you should know how to improve the service and what the key pain points are for delivering an efficient service.

Yeah.

And yeah, I think you're right. It's a great opportunity to showcase your understanding of them and also what you're bringing. And if you can do these 2 things, you can really make a great impression with this answer. You could do it really well. I think a bad answer to this would be not knowing anything about their waitlist backlog or outpatient or waiting times, not bringing in anything about you, and just being general around things that one could do, or listing things that you could do to improve waitlist times in general.

If you're working in a specialty that's got some kind of elective or outpatient component to it, then you should know, you know, what the waiting list looks like, you know, what their outpatient backlog looks like. You know, if you're working in emergency care, you should have an understanding of what 4-hour performance looks like in that department. What do, you know, ambulance offload times look like? You know, those kind of things. So, Understand what the flow metrics are and the efficiency metrics are for your specialty, and what's going on in that department, and then relate it to what you know about managing flow and efficiency.

Good. Okay, so definitely an important question to prep, and will be really— you can, whatever you prep for this, you would be able to use for any other question related to flow efficiency anyway.

Yeah. And money as well.

Yes.

Often if you're asked how to save money, unless you're the chief exec, it's really difficult to actually overtly kind of directly save money. Yeah. Um, but so the way to answer a money question is often to think about flow and efficiency. So, so it's a dual-purpose answer.

Yep.

Multi-purpose, I'd go as far as saying.

Not just dual. Many. There are many purposes to this.

Yeah.

Okay, so next we're going to look at our tip and trick of the And this week, we are looking at how to end your answers well. This is really important. It might seem like a small thing, but it is actually an important issue. What are your thoughts on it, Becky?

This is so key. It just helps you to showcase yourself to the best of your ability, to sound like you're really talking from the heart and with a definite purpose. And it just makes you sound a lot more polished. And I think, you know, we see this all the time, you know, in interviews and in mock interviews as well. People, you know, talk about a bit of this and a bit of that, and then they go, um, and, um, so I think that's about it. Um, or they—

Or they just stop mid-sentence.

They just stop. And then you're like taking notes.

Writing notes. And then you're like, oh, that's it, it's over. It makes me laugh. It's always like, come on, you need to finish it up. I always finish the last sentence.

So you can set— so it can be— there's various different ways of doing this. So you could finish it off, you know, like, so that's an example of a time that I made a mistake and had some significant personal and team learning as a result, you know. Or, so the 3 ways that I think about managing the outpatient backlog are Triage referrals, patient-initiated follow-up, and hospital-at-home discharge.

Yep. I thought you were going to not think of a third one.

I couldn't think of one then for a second.

But you did it. You pulled it out of the bag. Yeah, well, but I suppose that's the thing as well. If you might not remember, obviously you didn't actually have an answer, but if you might not remember, you don't need to say the things again. If you're trying to— if you feel your structure needs tightening up, I think it is helpful to reiterate your 3 points, but actually just a line, any line to indicate this is the end, I think is helpful for the panel.

Yeah.

Because that element of surprise, like, oh, she's finished, is not good flow for them. And the consequence is that if you— could be that if you then take a pause in an answer later on, they might think that's it, it's over, because they don't know when it ends. They just assume a pause is the end. And so you might end up getting interrupted. In the middle of an answer that you haven't quite finished, and you don't want to do that. So, if they just know, okay, this is how the answer ends, this is the end, it just makes it clearer. It's a very simple thing, but you'll feel more confident. It sounds more— it projects as more confident with the answer that you've just given. It doesn't fizzle out, and they will know when you're stopping, and you're less likely to be interrupted. So, yeah.

I like it as a structure from sort of end to end. So, you know, we often tell I'll be able to use a 3-point structure for their answers because there's a nice balance then between breadth across the answer and depth. And so I often, you know, like, you know, I'm going to talk about A, B, and C, and then, you know, then I think about, you know, the main body of the answer. There's a bit of information on each one of those things. So in summary, I've talked about A, B, and C. And it just sounds really polished.

Yep.

We love it.

We do. We love it. It's nice. It's confident. It's clear. It makes it easy for the panel to follow you. Um, so yeah, definitely is a great way to do it. Um, and if you can't do that, then just, you can just reflect the question back. So that's the time I made a mistake. So that's whatever, how I manage my time effectively. And it just indicates the end, but don't let it fizzle out and don't make it a surprise end for them.

So, that's the end of that answer.

And that's the end of the episode. I think we will tie up there. So, thank you. I'm not going to do a 3-point summary, but it's been great, as always, talking to you. And we will be back next week with more great interview prep. See you then.

See you next week.